My life from the heart of Berlin!

Archive for the tag “basil”

I love to keep a basil plant at the kitchen window but due to the unsteady temperature conditions it is not so easy to keep it alive for long as well as it is not so easy to use it up fast enough. The best thing to do in that case is to make a basil pesto! I have never done a pesto before but my blog is basically all about trying new recipes and learning new things.

There are basil pesto recipes for a classic basil pesto but actually pesto is always made to taste, based on the ingredients at hand. That really comes up to my own philosophy about using for a recipe what I find in my kitchen. Most basil pesto recipes include pine nuts/walnuts and parmesan cheese. I did not have these ingredients at hand so I left out the nuts and used a creamy feta cheese. Of course, you can adjust the ingredients to your taste!Basil Pesto with goat cheese

Ingredients

1 1/2 – 2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan or goat cheese

3 garlic cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp peppercorns or freshly ground pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Wash the basil and remove the leaves from the stems. Combine the basil leaves, garlic cloves, goat cheese and the peppercorns in a food processor. Pulse until everything is perfectly blended together. Add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Scrape down the sides of the food processor a few times with a spatula.

Since I do not use any nuts for my pesto I try to give it a special flavor with the type of salt and pepper that I’m using. My peppercorns have different colors and are freshly cracked in the food processor. If you do not have a food processor or you prefer to use a mortar you need to be very accurate when grinding the peppercorns. I like to use a mortar and to work with my hands instead of letting the food processor do all the work.The salt that I’m using is a special himalaya salt with a light pink color. It has a very strong and aromatic flavor.Add 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp lemon zest. This will give the pesto a fruity taste and balance the garlic.Your pesto is ready to be served! Serve with pasta, baked potatoes or even with fried fish.This is a very simple recipe and you can even safe your pesto in the fridge for several days to use it for many dishes. Pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top of it like I did so that it does not turn brown!

The last days were very stressful for me because I had some serious throat pain with coughing and at first I thought it would be a simple flu but as it always disappeared unexpectedly the same way as it appeared from time to time I reckoned it could be caused by something else. Since it appeared mostly in the mornings after sleep and after having food it showed that it was caused by an oesophagitis due to an acidity of the stomach. Now I feel relieved that it was nothing serious and I can concentrate again on posting the first recipe on my blog.

To regain my energy after some nights without sleep I was thinking of preparing something simple but still delicious giving me new drive for the day: An omelet!

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1 red onion

3 cherry tomatoes

2 green/spring onions

5 – 10 oyster mushrooms

a handful cranberries

some basil leaves

salt/pepper

The recipe is as simple as it sounds but it is colorful and nutritive! First you cut all the vegetables as shown in the pictures: The red onion, the cherry tomatoes, the green onions, and the basil leaves.

Don’t cut the cherry tomatoes too chunky, they have to be covered with the whipped eggs!

Now it is time for the most beautiful ingredient of this recipe: The red onion! Somehow I was fascinated seeing it on the photographies.

The oyster mushrooms don’t need to be cut into small pieces unless they are not too big.

Now you can put everything into a pan and fry it gently with some olive oil. I used a very acerb olive oil to impart an aromatic flavor to the omelet.

For those of you who love to give it a fruity taste add some dried cranberries to it like I did.

Now it’s time to whip the eggs and to add the creamy whipped eggs to the other ingredients in the pan. Some like to add salt and pepper directly to the whipped eggs, others do it in the pan after pouring the eggs into it.

Fry the egg mixture with all the vegetables gently so that the egg does not burn. When one side starts becoming brown it’s time to flip it.

Enjoy your omelet like I did! Now I have new energy to indulge in new recipes and photographies!